Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kara’s hands were shaking, but she ignored it. Her entire body was tense as she searched the room and bathroom, making sure that she’d taken everything that was hers.
Earlier that morning, she’d been called to the breakfast table by a housekeeper she hadn’t expected, but she didn’t ask questions, only quietly accepted. Having breakfast at the same table as Lucas was the last thing Kara wanted, but she also knew that she’d need all her strength if she wanted to disappear again.
This time they wouldn’t find her.
Luc had broken the cold silence at the table to tell her that he was leaving for work in a few hours and that he’d take the housekeeper with him to drop her off at her place. The house would be all hers then, he’d said.
Kara had kept her eyes on her food, missing how tight around the mouth he’d gone when he’d said that. She’d only nodded in response, inwardly overjoyed that she’d have the perfect opportunity to leave.
She stood at the foot of the bed, trying not to think of how warm and comfy it was. God only knew where she would be sleeping that night.
With a sigh, Kara tightened her hair in its pony and zipped up her jacket. The usual routine she unconsciously performed whenever she prepared to run. She wiggled her toes in her boots, glad they were comfortable since she’d be on foot until she reached civilization and could catch a taxi.
There was a single knock on the door and she jumped, startled. Irritation rose swiftly within her at herself. She couldn’t be as jumpy as a guilty rabbit right now, it was what got people killed.
She quickly threw on a massive bathrobe she’d found on the back of the bathroom door, hoping the person it had belonged to hadn’t been a woman. And more importantly that they hadn’t been Luc’s woman. She couldn’t bear the thought.
Kara pulled open the door, keeping most of her body behind it. She poked her head out and stood stock still. Before her, Lucas stood looking devastatingly handsome. Kara couldn’t even speak. His body was wrapped in a tailor-made dark navy suit with a crisp white shirt that was open at the neck. His hair, thick and as dirty blond as ever, drew away from his forehead, letting his eyes stand out in all their grey glory.

“Ahem!” Lucas cleared his throat making her eyes dart back up to his from she’d been staring at the exposed skin at the hollow of his throat.
Red shot into her cheeks and she looked away.
“I’m leaving now,” he said, his voice void of all emotion. Kara looked up at him, staring into his eyes and in a second he was drowning in hers, staring at her greens with an intensity she couldn’t bear.

Quickly she nodded and began to close the door. “Goodbye, then.”
Luc stepped forward in strange panic as the door shut in his face. He stood staring at it, battling the urge to push it open and kiss her until he’d rid himself of this hunger that was beginning to weaken him. But he couldn’t. Not with who she was.
Silently chastening himself, he dragged his gaze away from the door and stalked away.
It would be over soon. After today, she would be far from him and he would have his sanity back. A throb of pain went through his heart and Lucas clenched his jaw, ignoring it. She’d lied. Pretended she was innocent and was being hunted by a bunch of bullies.
Luc walked to his car, parked out in the front where the new housekeeper was already sitting.
He was doing the right thing, he convinced himself. She wasn’t the victim here. She’d probably stolen a few million from her father then ran to escape punishment. That was why she was so scared, she knew what a bastard her sweet daddy could be.
Tough. She’d have to deal with it.
Lucas drove the car down the long driveway, refusing to look back at the house where he was leaving her for her father. He refused to care.
Kara sat cross-legged on the bed, the robe discarded on the floor. She’d heard his car drive away and she listened until she couldn’t hear the sound of its tyres any longer.
Her fingers tapped a rhythmless beat against her knees as she tried to calm herself down. She would wait for at least fifteen minutes, then she’d hit the road.
Her heart hurt with the knowledge that she wouldn’t see Isabelle and Celeste ever again, but Kara pushed down on the pain. She couldn’t afford to not focus right now.
She had to get away. Away from everything she’d unintentionally become trapped in.
It was unintentional, all of it. Kara scowled in outrage. She’d never asked to be sent to France, nor to become a member of staff in the drug trafficking/prostitution business her father ran. Nor, for fuck’s sake, did she ask to meet Lucas Cartier! Nor did she ask to fall in love with him.
A broken sigh escaped her and Kara quickly smacked her lips shut. No self-pity. It had never gotten her anywhere before today and it wouldn’t get her anywhere now.
With determination, she picked up her backpack and canvas bag, grateful that she’d taken her paints with her. If she had had to go back to the ranch for those, her heart would have probably given out on her.
Kara glanced around the room, making sure that all of Luc’s expensive possessions were in their place. She pulled open the bedroom door and stepped into the hallway, the sound of her boots hitting the wood echoing through the house and reminding her that she was once again on her own.
Alone. No François, no Celeste. No Lucas. Nobody. Kara held her head high and walked through the house towards the front door.
The large sofa stretched over a thick carpet caught her eye as she walked past and Kara stared at it, remembering her own back at the cottage. Remembering how she’d stretched out on it that night, held warmly in Luc’s embrace. He’d held her before they slept and silenced her protests with a hard kiss, warning her to sleep before he did more than kiss.
Kara snorted, remembering how she’d quickly shut her eyes, terrified to feel that strange fire that filled her when he touched her.
An immediate brake was slammed on her thoughts and Kara shook her head.
No, she couldn’t let herself slip into this state of remembering what once was. It was gone, Luc was really that asshole she’d met on the first day, not this sweet, irresistible man she’d drawn him up to be in her mind.
With a huff, Kara stomped away and reached the front door, her hand curling with determination around the handle.
“Goodbye, Lucas.”
She pulled the door open, her body already moving to exit the house when as though injected with an ice serum, Kara froze from head to toe, her eyes staring into a pair so much like her own.
A cold smile curved beneath the dead green eyes.
“Hello, daughter. You’ve been bad. Haven’t you?”